Turbidity sensing is very common in the control of drinking water. Furthermore, turbidity measurements are applied in the chemical (e.g., process monitoring), pharmaceutical (e.g., drug discovery), and food industries (e.g., the filtration of wine and beer). The most common measurement technique is nephelometric turbidimetry. A nephelometer is a device for measuring the amount of scattered light of suspended particles in a liquid by using a light source and a light detector orientated in 90° to each other. Commercially available nephelometers cost usually—depending on the measurable range, reliability, and precision—thousands of euros. In contrast, our new developed GRIN-lens-based nephelometer, called GRINephy, combines low costs with excellent reproducibility and precision, even at very low turbidity levels, which is achieved by its ability to rotate the sample. Thereby, many cuvette positions can be measured, which results in a more precise average value for the turbidity calculated by an algorithm, which also eliminates errors caused by scratches and contaminations on the cuvettes. With our compact and cheap Arduino-based sensor, we are able to measure in the range of 0.1–1000 NTU and confirm the ISO 7027-1:2016 for low turbidity values.

The breakdown voltage of the biocompatible polymer Parylene C was determined after storage in 60°C saline solution and treatment by autoclave. It occurred that both, storage at 60°C in saline solution and autoclaving, lead to distinct decrease of dielectric strength by approximately 50%.

Plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PEALD) is utilized to improve the barrier properties of an organic chip-film patch (CFP) when it is used as an implant to prevent moisture and ions from migrating into the embedded electronic circuits. For this purpose, surface condition and material properties of eight modifications of Al₂O₃-TiO₂ nanolaminates sequentially deposited on polyimide PI-2611 films are evaluated in detail. The effect of stress-induced warpage of the deposited Al₂O₃-TiO₂ on the wafer level is calculated with the Stoney equation and reveals higher tensile stress values while increasing the thickness of Al₂O₃-TiO₂ nanolaminates from 20 up to 80 nm. Contact angle measurement and atomic force microscopy are used to investigate the surface energy and wettability, as well as the surface morphology of polyimide-Al₂O₃-TiO₂ interfaces. We show that plasma treatment of pristine polyimide leads to an enhanced adhesion force of the PEAL-deposited layer by a factor of 1.3. The water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) is determined by exposing the coated polyimide films to 85% humidity and 23 °C and yields down to 1.58 × 10^-3 g(H₂O)/(m² d). The data obtained are compared with alternative coating processes using the polymers parylene-C and benzocyclobutene (BCB). The latter shows higher WVTR values of 1.2 × 10^-1 and 1.7 × 10^-1 g(H₂O)/(m² d) compared to the PEALD-PI-2611 systems, indicating lower barrier properties. Two Al₂O₃-TiO₂ modifications with low WVTR values have been chosen for encapsulating the CFP substrates and exposing them in a long-time experiment to chemical and mechanical loads in a chamber filled with phosphate-buffered saline at 37 °C, pH 7.3, and a cyclically applied pressure of 160 mbar (∼120 mm Hg). The electrical leakage behavior of the CFP systems is measured and reveals reliable electrical long-term stability far beyond 11 months, highlighting the great potential of PEALD-encapsulated CFPs.